


Off the Rails

by corellianrogue



Series: A Step to the Left of Reality [5]
Category: Dong Bang Shin Ki
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Mental Health Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-23
Updated: 2012-11-23
Packaged: 2017-11-19 07:26:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/570714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corellianrogue/pseuds/corellianrogue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Much madness is divinest sense/ to a discerning eye/ Much sense the starkest madness.</i> ~Emily Dickinson</p><p>Changmin has nothing if not a discerning eye but sometimes the line is too blurry even for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Off the Rails

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 2011 hc_bingo challenge on LJ.

  
Sometimes, there’s crazy, and then there’s _crazy_. None of them were exactly _crazy_ yet, but once in a while, Changmin wondered if they weren’t rapidly getting there.  
  
He didn’t mean the little rituals and things that any performer had, like Junsu’s lucky sock (sock, singular, just one, and Changmin had never quite gotten around to asking what happened to the other one that made its remaining half so lucky... which for anyone else would be _crazy_ but this was Junsu) or Jaejoong’s love affair with his kitchen appliances or even Yunho’s pathological inability to find his phone at least once a day, or twice if they had time to sit down for more than five minutes. Even Yoochun’s love of two-carton chick flicks wasn’t _that_ crazy, no matter what Changmin told him to his face.  
  
But sometimes... Sometimes Jaejoong locked himself in the bathroom just a little too long, eyes just a little too wide when Yunho finally talked him into opening the door because _for God’s sake, other people need to shower, too_ , and skin just a little too pink for it to be just from the hot water. Sometimes Junsu sang and sang and sang until his voice cracked like scratched glass and Junsu went away somewhere inside that none of them were quite brave enough to follow.  
  
And Changmin?  
  
Changmin watched it all happen. He thought that made him the craziest of all.  
  
Sitting on a chair in their dressing room, watching Yunho obsessively check and recheck the seals on all their drink bottles and the packaging on all their snacks, watching him all but interrogate their staff whenever something fresh was brought in. Were they sure they knew where it came from? Who made it? Who could have touched it? And, really, who could blame him, considering?  
  
But then Changmin had to wonder, maybe the whole world was crazy. Maybe ‘normal’ people did this, too. People who didn’t have to worry about anti-fans and the world ending because you missed your high note. Except sometimes Yoochun would burst into tears because of something none of the rest of them could figure out and Changmin would wonder if maybe the whole world was crazy, yes, but maybe they were the craziest of all.  
  
Until Jaejoong would follow Yoochun and Junsu would try to distract Changmin from all his endless wondering by challenging him to an ultimate showdown on their game of the week and Yunho would sit and laugh while Changmin let (yes, let, he refused to admit there was any fair competition involved) Junsu win, as usual. Times like that, Changmin remembered just how crazy they all were. Crazy, but not quite _crazy_. You kind of had to be, to be what they were and do what they were doing. That’s why a group needed five members, so there was always someone else there to keep you just sane enough.  
  
Junsu crowed his latest victory, breaking Changmin out of his thoughts again. Changmin hit Junsu with a pillow and the start button on his controller. If he thought Changmin would let him win this time, he was _crazy_.


End file.
